Welcome to The Smoking Tire. Kick ass automotive videos and more.

Video: Formula D Newcomer Corey Hosford Teaches Matt How to Drift!

Tuesday, December 6th, 2011

Drifting is one of those things that, like golf, bull riding, and porn, professionals make look very easy. It’s also something that many drivers claim to do well, when in fact, they do not. Since Matt is not a professional racing driver, he is more than willing to admit that he doesn’t have the first clue how to drift a car properly. But he’s also the first to admit that when you don’t know something, you get a professional to teach you, and you simply listen and try to be a good student.

The kind folks at the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving in Arizona offered The Smoking Tire the use of their facility and vehicles for a day of private drifting lessons from instructor Corey Hosford, who will be starting his Formula Drift career this coming April at Long Beach in his K-Sport Nissan 350Z. Can Matt start from nothing and become a drifter in just one day? Hit the jump to find out.

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TST Dream Garage: Vaugh Gittin Jr.’s Mustang RTR-X (video)

Thursday, December 1st, 2011

 

This is the newest car to be added to the TST Dream Garage. For those of you new to the game, we’re slowly compiling a list of all the cars we’d buy if we had money.  I mean so much money you’d buy one of those stupid, giant yachts that Paul Allen used to substitute his penis. If it’s a vehicle, we can put it on the wish list for the day we all simultaneously win every lottery in the US at once. And being added to that ever-expanding garage in the sky (Skycake made daily) is Vaughn Gittin Jr’s own, 1969 Need For Speed Mustang RTR-X. I ****ing love this car.

 

This car came out long ago, and it’s been on a tour since it debuted at SEMA in 2010. So you’ve probably seen it, heard of it or read about it. Nothing new. I’d read about it when it came out and thought it was awesome. But that didn’t prepare me for what I’d think when I saw it at Formula D this year at Irwindale. I rounded the corner  and stopped. (Earmuffs kids.) “Hoooo shit.” Make the jump to read my love story, and watch Gittin destroy some tires.

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Jeremy Clarkson Drifts His-and our- COTY (Video)

Monday, November 21st, 2011

 

God Bless the Internet. Without it, I wouldn’t have access to hours of car news, be able to rapidly calculate torque figures, price conversions and I would still be wondering if anyone had ever thought of  having a superhero orgy, set at the Taj Mahal (someone did). And I also wouldn’t be able to see every single thing Jeremy Clarkson has ever written, starred in or hosted. “Illegal” Internet downloading convinced the BBC there just might be a small population of people in the USA that want to watch Top Gear (You’re welcome). And now it brings us a great clip from Clarkson’s newest holiday DVD, Powered Up. Make the jump to watch. (more…)

Finn Builds Bonkers Mercedes W123 Diesel Wagon Drift Car (With Video!)

Thursday, September 23rd, 2010

Oddball cars are the spice of life, well, at least my life anyway. I’m so flooded with car information most of the time, that a great portion of it just goes in one ear and out the other, because, honestly, I’ve seen it all before. Not this time. While most drift drivers are busy cranking up the boost on their 240′s, or converting econoboxes to rear-wheel-drive with NASCAR engines, Finnish drifter Teemu Peltola has gone a different direction: He built a 1981 Mercedes 300D Wagon into a drifter.

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Video: Tanner Foust Slaughters The Competition at New Jersey Rallycross

Friday, September 3rd, 2010

By now, we all know that Tanner Foust has some skills behind the wheel. From drifting public roads to winning two gold medals at X-Games Rally and Super Rally, Tanner is the kind of driver we like to get behind, and a damn good friend to The Smoking Tire. Tanner has been competing in the European Rallycross series this year, and for the first time, rallycross has come to America, at New Jersey Motorsports Park. Competing against some of his biggest X-Games rivals, including Dave Mirra, Travis Pastrana, and Andrew Comrie-Picard (ACP), Tanner positively wiped the floor track with them all, and got himself a well-deserved first place. Video after the jump.

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Samuel Hubinette and Andrew Comrie-Picard Practice For X-Games Rally

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

With the X-Games coming up this weekend, drivers are practicing all over Southern California in preparation. Unlike a skateboard, cars need to be thoroughly run-in before competition, and sometimes things break at the last minute. So, thorough practice sessions are necessary, and I just happen to be one of the lucky few  that BF Goodrich invited to Irwindale Speedway (I mean a rock quarry down the street from Irwindale Speedway) to check out Samuel Hubinette and Andrew Comrie-Picard giving their matching Mitsubishi Evo’s a real thrashing. Formula Drift Champion Hubinette, in the newer Evo X, was extremely excited about this weekend’s competition, saying, “Driving a rally car, even though it’s new for me, feels very natural. Coming from drifting, ice racing in Sweden, and stunt driving, Rally is a natural extension of my abilities, and it’s just really, really fun. The jump they are building will be the biggest I’ve ever done by far, but as long as you keep your speed right, it’s one of the easier parts of the course.”

Comrie-Picard, known simply as ACP by, well, pretty much everyone, was looking great, hustling his Evo IX around the short course and scaring the crap out of any journalist willing to hop in the passenger seat.

Mega-Rally-Gallery after the jump!

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Video: Crazy Arab Drivers Take Over Dubai Road

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

We’ve seen some crazy Arab driving before. Whether it’s Carrera GT’s and BMW M5′s drifting through downtown Dubai, or Shiekhs running Formula One cars on closed sections of desert highway, Arabs clearly know how to have fun in a car. (I should know, I’m half Arab – MF).

Here’s another good one. A bunch of guys in Lexus LX570 trucks block off traffic while some guys in shitbox Daihatsu’s and Toyota pickup trucks start doing donuts and drifting. Then the Daihatsu goes up on two wheels, and proceeds to cruise down Shiekh Zayed Road, the main road through Dubai, for several minutes, weaving through traffic.

I wish we were brave enough to try something like this on the 405 Freeway in LA, but we’re quite certain it wouldn’t end well.

Thanks, Vinny for the tip!

Behind The Scenes – Street Drift: Mulholland with Tanner Foust

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

The Smoking Tire goes behind the scenes with Tanner Foust on Mulholland Highway to see what it takes to put together his “Street Drift” Series.

What you may not know is this: if you have seen Tanner’s “Street Drift: Mulholland” video, you may realize that it was shot with dozens of cameras from all angles, including a chase car and camera-mounted R/C Helicopter.  Our video, of the same day, was shot with One HD Cam and Two Flip Cam’s. That’s it. You be the judge, who used their resources better?

Tanner Foust: Mulholland Highway Street Drift

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

I know Tanner pretty well, have for a couple years, and the dude’s got skills. It’s not hard to really scare the crap out of a passenger when you’re a professional driver, but going sideways at very high speeds and NOT scaring the passenger? Much more difficult. I was at Mulholland Hwy the day they shot this, and The Smoking Tire has exclusive, behind-the-scenes footage of this video that we will be airing in a few weeks. For all of you who are going to make the Ken Block comparison comments, realize that KB’s Gymkhana videos had TONS of tire tread marks around the obstacles, the result of him doing take after take. Look at the asphalt on Mulholland; pristene, which means one take.

Gallardo Goes Skiing

Sunday, March 14th, 2010

Lamborghini has invaded the snow-covered territory of Subaru, Audi and Mistubishi. This Gallardo, built by reiter-engineering, has some serious snow tires and one of the most hauntingly amazing exhaust sounds I’ve ever heard. I watched Tiff Needell drift an LP-560-4, tamely, around an ice course, but this is different. Drifting is just how this car stretches before it tears up a ski slow, surely causing an avalanche with the howl it produces. Simply awesome. And soon, this will be cheaper than buying a normal lift ticket. We want to thank our friend ToofaneBatamameezi for hosting this awesome video.